1. Field Of The Invention
The present invention relates generally to vending machines of the type used to automatically vend a can or bottle usually containing a liquid such as a soft drink and more specifically to converting such vending machines in the field so that they may vend differently priced cans and bottles as well as adding cash and product accounting information features.
2. Prior Art
Can and bottle vending machines are an important part of the soft drink industry. They are found in virtually every location where people are likely to purchase a can or bottle of soft drink at any time of day or night, where there is some form of public access and generally where there is no other convenient means for purchasing a soft drink. Thus, by way of example, one may find such dispensing machines on most or all floors of every major hotel, in places of recreational activities such as bowling alleys and movie theaters, in places of employment and in high traffic, publically accessible locations such as airports, train stations, bus stations and the like. Historically, such vending machines have been electromechanical devices which use relays, controlling single turn motors, all interconnected by hard wired logic to dispense a single can or bottle upon acceptance of a set amount in currency. In all such electromechanical vending machines, a coin acceptor enables the machine to vend. The vast majority of coin acceptors for electromechanical vending machines are of the single price type, meaning that all products in the machine carry the same price. The coin acceptor is set to that vending price and controls the acceptance and rejection of coins, as well as providing change or turning on an exact change only light when no change is available. Unfortunately, such single price electromechanical can and bottle vending machines, while satisfactory for the intended purpose, suffer the distinct disadvantage of single price operation. Single price operation means that the owner of the vending machine must provide only products having essentially the same value, such as by way of example, different flavors of the same soft drink. Many vending machine companies find it highly desirable to be able to offer a variety of different products having different values and thus require the sale be made at different prices depending upon such value. A vending machine owner may prefer to offer a variety of different products, such as for example in addition to soft drinks, fruit juices, mineral water and specialty refreshments such as gatorade. Can vending machines could also readily dispense totally different products such as tennis balls and the like, where overall package shape is similar to a soft drink can, for example. In each such case where a variety of different value products could be made available to the purchaser at a vending machine, the price for one such product may for example, be 50 cents, while the price for another may be a dollar or more. Unfortunately, the purely electromechanical machines of the past are generally incapable of providing such a multiprice capability which would enable the vending machine owner to offer a variety of products of different value and price. As used herein, the term "multiprice", means that each selector switch can be assigned a price which can be set independently of the price assigned to the other selector switches.
With the advent of microprocessors and microcontrollers, vending machine manufacturers have recently begun providing far more sophisticated vending machines which are capable of providing such multiprice options to the purchaser. However, after virtually decades of prolific distribution of less sophisticated, purely electromechanical machines, there are millions of such machines out in the field which do not provide such multiprice capability. The cost of replacing purely electromechanical machines with new microprocessor controlled machines would be prohibitive. Also significant is the effect that such mass replacement would have on the environment. The huge amount of scrap metal, wire and plastic and the like that would result from the mass substitution of new electronically controlled machines for the previously used electromechanical machines, would be a major detriment to the environment. Even if one were merely to remove all of the interior components of existing machines and replace them with electronically controlled components while using the exteriors, the complexity of such an operation would require that each such machine be brought back to the factory so that the extensive re-working of the interior can be carried out where the tools and labor required for such an operation are available. Thus, such a major operation would also incur significant cost to the owners of vending machines in regard to both the expense of replacing the interior components, as well as to the major cost of removing all of the old machines from the field and shipping them back to the factory and then shipping the converted machines back to the dispensing locations.
The only efficient method for converting single priced can and bottle vending machines to multipriced and accounting capabilities, would be to provide an apparatus and method which permitted such a conversion to be carried out in the field, at the site of the vending machine and in a manner which permitted one man to carry out such an operation in a relatively short period of time without requiring any extraordinary skill or special tools. Thus for example, providing a method and apparatus which would permit such a conversion to be accomplished in the field in approximately thirty minutes or less, with little or no impact on the existing wiring already found in the purely electromechancial machines, would certainly reduce the relative cost and time required to make such a conversion and thus make it feasible for the owners of single priced electromechanical vending machines to update their machines to provide multipriced capability. Furthermore, while providing multipriced capability is certainly the most important advantage of microprocessor control of vending machines, there are other significant advantages which also make such a conversion highly desirable.
The highly sophisticated control, sensing, storage and display capabilities afforded by microprocessor control can also provide other features besides multipricing. Such features include accounting features which permit the vending machine owner to keep accurate track of the total cash received by the machine, as well as the total cash for each different type of product, as well as the number of different products selected by a purchaser, even after the product has been sold out. Other features can significantly reduce the vending machine owners' likelihood of losing money to theft, as well as easing their reporting requirements for income tax and sales tax purposes and also by providing an automatic survey of purchaser preferences with respect to the products being sold. Furthermore, a microprocessor control capability can also generate unique displays which provide purchasers with credit and other messages in operating the machine or of an advertising type which may, for example, be used to influence buying habits, such as by suggesting the desirability of buying the more expensive product available at the vending machine. Furthermore, the microprocessor control capabilities provide more convenient operation for changing the prices of products being offered by the vending machine, such as when costs rise or more valuable products are substituted or when reducing prices, such as when less valuable products are being offered. Furthermore, microprocessor control capability provides more convenient means for testing the operation of the vending machine during periodic maintenance.
All of these features make it highly desirable to be able to convert from a purely electromechanical machine to a microprocessor-controlled machine, but unless such conversion can be carried out in the field in a relatively small period of time, without requiring any special tools or equipment, and without requiring any form of significant re-wiring of the existing machine, all such new capability would essentially be denied because of the prohibitive cost for carrying out conversion using the alternatives discussed above.